Work with Nature – Volunteer work

“My friend Erika and I went together for three weeks to the project in San Miguel. Going in, we weren’t quite sure what to expect, but we were both beyond satisfied with our time there. We actually wished we could have stayed there long-term to work on a research project. So, our two-week stay was filled with learning, volunteer work, and the beginnings of scientific studies that the project leaders were starting after the new year.

The work that the organization is doing is incredible. They just closed a deal on buying more hectares of reserve land, and now have about 100 hectares for conservation use near Batan. Because our stay was short, our contribution was limited. However, we were able to help Maarten, Hanneke, and the long-term student interns with their reforestation and biodiversity projects. We also helped around the farm with maintenance, including raking, cleaning, and harvesting certain fruits. Overall, it was a well-rounded and inspiring experience learning about the culture and wildlife of the area, and why it’s important to salvage it.

Me and Erika’s only real challenge was figuring out the bus system to get to the project. We also were a bit confused in the beginning about who Matthijs was and who Maarten was. After being in the jungle, with limited service and Wi-Fi, we see how there is a communication challenge. However, I recommend to anyone thinking about taking this opportunity, to book an overnight with Robert from the Turtle Saving Hostel in San Jose after their flight. He guided us through the steps to get to Batan and helped us communicate with Maarten for our pick up. Everything was smooth, and travel was a lot easier than I expected, even with barely any knowledge in speaking Spanish.

Not setting any expectations, Erika and I were elated and truly moved by the connections and relationships we made with the people on the project. Everyone had something to offer, and everyone we met was inspiring in their own way. This project truly changed my perspective on life, my future, and the power of human connection to nature.”

Environmental Research Internship in Costa Rica

Join an organisation you’ll be proud of!

“This organisation has various ways in which they contribute to the development of rural communities around Siem Reap city. Check out the organisation’s website for more information on their impact. The CCDO has a very passionate and dedicated local team doing most of the fieldwork. As volunteers, we support all ongoing projects mainly by writing reports, grant proposals, capturing data and communicate with donors. When you start seeing the bigger picture, as a volunteer you realise that you indeed do contribute to the success of the organisation. Of course, we don’t merely sit in the office. At least two times per week you will go to the rural villages with the local team to conduct surveys, interviews, and assessments. Personally, I loved going to the villages – even though the language barrier makes it nearly impossible to communicate with villagers, by just observing one already learns a lot and can perform one’s office duties with much more insight and commitment. Cambodia is also a beautiful country so the 30min tuk-tuk rides outside the city already make it worth the trip.

I was mostly involved in the Social Entrepreneurship Program that seeks to generate funds that both develop rural communities but also help the NGO to make its projects more sustainable. The Piglet Project e.g. gives families two female piglets to kickstart pig farming. I helped to update data, do interviews with potential beneficiaries and design workshops.

Communication was certainly the biggest challenge in Cambodia – fortunately, the CCDO functions in English. Be patient and rather see the communication struggles as an opportunity for the Khmer people to also improve their English skills: never be patronizing nor annoyed, in Cambodia you will be inspired by how much this country’s people do to make life happen every day.

The organisation, the country and the entire experience exceeded my expectations by far! Not only did I learn a lot about NGO Management as intended or get to live in the small but wonderful city of Siem Reap, I also met dozens of people from all over the world: fellow volunteers came from the US, Malaysia, Spain, the Netherlands; through partnerships with foundations and donors, I met successful and influential people from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, the US. Merely hoping that I would gain a frame of reference before I commence further studies in this field, I can also confidently say that I gained work and networking experience valuable to advance my career in the near future.

I recommend this program to those who seek exposure to the field of NGO Management/Community Development, who has a passion to better people’s lives, is quite adaptable, and always curious to learn. The CCDO’s NGO Management Internship is not a structured internship although the team does invest a lot of time guiding, showing and sharing their knowledge and stories with the volunteers. You are exposed to and get to participate in all the various projects that need attention. Thus, don’t be too set on which project you expect to run, but also don’t hesitate to contribute in whatever field you feel most confident in.

If you are open to taking on every trip and task as an opportunity to learn about Cambodia’s people and ways to improve their livelihoods, this will be an absolute highlight of and very influential season in your life! You’ll be proud to be associated with this organisation.”

NGO Management Internship in Cambodia

Cambodia: NGO Management Development

“My time in Cambodia has been the highlight of my life this far! The organisation was helpful even from the beginning; they attended to our queries and concern prior to arrival and even provided pick up from the airport- a warm welcome from another volunteer and the tuk-tuk driver.

Throughout my volunteerism, I was initially given the role of a Women’s Healthcare Officer, however, I was given the opportunity to be involved in all other projects, including the Piglets Program, WASH Program, Sustainable Teaching/Teaching English as Second Language Program. I was brought to the villages to see how workshops and meetings are being conducted in the villages- everything is in the Khmer language so I was just observing but these experiences in the villages are very valuable.

Furthermore, I was also given the opportunity to be involved in Grants and Reports Writing- this is my favourite as I could utilise my drafting skill from my legal training in the grants and reports writing. I worked under minimal supervision from the Executive Director and my greatest success was when I submitted a lengthy and comprehensive grant application to a famous foundation! I was also tasked with recruiting where I got the opportunity to meet many people, i.e. applicants eager to join the organisation and conducted interviews as well as further communications with successful applicants. Joining this project has definitely broaden my mind and changed my perspectives on material possession and life in general. I would totally recommend this program to anyone who is interested in NGO management.”

NGO Management Development in Cambodia

Coral Reef and Marine Park Conservation

“I spent 3 months in the Caribbean as an intern. The application was surprisingly easy thanks to the lots of help by the Global Nomadic, especially Jeremy, and the

marine park manager of St. Eustatius National Parks, Jessica. Getting there was pretty easy, at the airport I was picked up by Francois, the marine ranger. Luckily I got some days off to be over the jetlag. First, we were housed at the Caribbean Netherlands Science Institute.

The island is a small treasure but I needed three months to explore it well. I really appreciated that the other interns were helpful and guided me if I was lost. In the beginning, I was guided around the marine park.

The stressless life was sensible which means everybody was willing to help me, to teach me without pressure. A big surprise was the locals’ attitude towards each other. Everyone greets the other, waves at the other or uses the horn of the car. People are so helpful that I got lift many times, it did not matter where I wanted to go to. Although I thought there was no place to party at the weekends, in fact, there were some awesome places where we could feel good by dancing, singing and so on.

I gained a lot of experiences and knowledge during working with the project. Every week hid something new, but we had some projects as well. I could take part in the coral projects and learn all the methods from the preparing to the maintaining. We were spending the morning on the boat, diving a lot. During that time I have been able to learn basic ship handling techniques. I saw what makes a dive site suitable for scuba diving. The park possesses more than 20 dive sites, and these dive sites have the own beauty.

I had the opportunity to participate in other tasks of the national park such as working in the botanical garden. The environment had an effect on me there. Making the garden prettier and prettier at the foot of the volcano, in a more or less hidden place was fun. Furthermore, we conducted a beach mapping to estimate

the effect of erosion, beach cleaning, which surprised me how many kilos of garbage we can collect in one hour. It was awful to see with my own eyes what we cause with the plastics and other garbage materials. Additionally, the bird assessment made it more colourful. I could learn what the bird species of the island look like and sound like.

In free time, we went hiking up to the volcano Quill or in the Bovine National Park. There is no word what a person can meet there. I seriously felt I was in the Lord of the Rings. Of course, we visited the beach or went snorkelling, too. Or just throwing a barbecue party.

To sum it up, it was a great opportunity to learn new things, to gain experiences before continuing my study. I managed to get to know fantastic people”.

St Eustatius (Caribbean): Coral Reef & Marine Park Conservation

Protecting the Amazon

“On April 1, 2018, I set off on my first ever trip outside of the U.S. I knew I would be placed with an internship in Tena, Ecuador, and live with a host family but did not know much else. After three days of orientation with the program, I was assigned to live and work with the family and community just 10 minutes outside the city of Tena. My family operates a unique ethnobotanical park that has 15 acres of primary rainforest, an ethnobotanical garden, containing the most common rainforest plants, and a collection of caves that tourists frequent.

My responsibilities were to work with the family in their day-to-day tasks and also to observe and come up with a project in which I could use my unique skills to help them. The first few weeks, I observed and took in as much of the Kichwa culture as I could. I spent a lot of time with my host mom and her sisters crocheting and making artisan crafts. I was particularly interested in traditional medicine and and medicinal plants, so I gathered a lot of information from this as well.

Later in my stay, I began the project of creating a book of the most common plants in the garden. I interviewed many members of my host family about plants, which was incredible. They were able tell me so much about every plant in the garden just from their memory. With the help of a book that had descriptions of the plants in Spanish, I created a guidebook of 40 plants with Spanish and English descriptions as well as pictures of the plants from the garden. Other small jobs I helped with were creating labels for the different sections of the garden, routine cleanings of the park, and social media help.

Through my program, I also participated in project with a local school in Tena in which I and two other interns put on a three-class program about reforestation and the environment. Despite being surrounded by the Amazon, many of the children in the city schools did not know much about the rainforest or the plants in it! I was able to share the knowledge I had learned from my host family about medicinal plants with the students, and they were able to help me with my Spanish.

I definitely strengthened my Spanish skills. Along those lines, I believe I strengthened my communication skills, learning to communicate with my host family in a different language and with limited technology. I also gained confidence in not being perfect. I was super nervous to go into stores and speak poor Spanish at the beginning, but by the end I was going wherever I needed to, still with poor Spanish, but with confidence that I could get done what I needed. I also gained SO much knowledge about plants–recognizing them, some work with remedies and some work with planting them.

As a biochemical engineering major, I learn a lot about western medicine and how to modify things on the DNA level. Traditional medicine and this field are not always combined as they could be. I can see there being some potential with bringing the knowledge I have learned from the Amazonian plants to the world of the laboratories. Additionally being introduced to plants in the Amazon has opened up a new field of study for me that I may pursue.

Putting into words how this experience benefitted me educationally and for my potential career is extremely difficult, because this experience definitely has changed my life. Tangibly, this experience taught me so much about traditional medicine and medicinal plants. As a biochemical engineering major, I mainly see how medicine is made in labs, and it was awesome to see how medicine is directly taken from nature and used. I could see the collaboration of the traditional and western medicine being a potential project for my future.

Additionally, this experience opened up my worldview 100 fold. Before this trip, I had never traveled abroad. I now have new respect for protecting our natural resources, understanding native traditions, and balancing the complications that come with building up a developing country. I often found myself mentally distraught while learning about the struggles Ecuador has endured because the values we strive for do not always line up with success. For example, the average US citizen is all for protecting the Amazon, not realizing that the reason our country found success was through destroying many of our forests. I began to see the US from other countries’ eyes. This and so many other dilemmas I had never thought of came to light in my experience.

One of the biggest takeaways from my experience was learning to drop all expectations, and learn to enjoy whatever life wants to bring. Frequently on my experience, I would wake up and have absolutely no idea what the day would bring. Even if I had plans for the day, they could change at any instant. Between the frequent rain, less efficient communication, and a slower lifestyle, nothing was ever set in stone in the Amazon. While this was frustrating at first, I learned to love it. I stopped worrying about what I had planned and learned to appreciate what was happening in the moment. I believe that this aspect alone has made me more resilient and significantly happier as a person. I learned to stop putting the value of my day on what I planned to do, and instead on what happened and what I learned from it. It was a great practice in letting go of things I can’t control and letting God and the spirits of the Amazon lead the way. And in the end, everything was perfect. I believe that this practice will help me immensely in the future. I no longer look at what should have or could have happened, but what did happen and how that can help me.

There was a lot I couldn’t control in Ecuador, so I quickly learned to let go and just live. Life was much more exciting waking up without having any idea what I was going to do that day. While that same attitude is not always plausible in America, I can definitely use this new attitude when there are things I can’t control or something doesn’t go as planned. When I was able to drop the could haves, and observe the is’s, I was able to enjoy the small things that before were hidden. I think this will help my anxiety in the future. Second, I gained a new appreciation for mental and spiritual health. Before coming, I had dabbled with meditation and yoga, but wasn’t sold. Learning about shamans, good and bad spirits, bad air affecting physical health, and so much more, I realized how important it is to be healthy in mind, spirit, and body. I haven’t been back in the US for a week and I’ve already attended two yoga classes. I’m excited to up my mental and spiritual health now. I believe it will help me on so many levels, including my athletic career! I also gained skills working with different cultures as this was my first experience abroad!”

Amazonian Traditional Medicine, Herbalism & Ethnobotany in Ecuador

Becoming fully alive with the Fundacion

“For 9 weeks in the Summer of 2018 I participated in an agroforestry internship through Global Nomadic. This opened me up to a company that produces and sells an energy drink made from guayusa, a ‘tea’ like leaf native to the Ecuadorian Amazon. I worked for the Fundacion, the non-profit initially attached before total separation in the Summer of 2018. The vision of the Fundacion is to improve local livelihoods and conserve tropical biodiversity by creating sustainable value for rainforest products. Throughout my agroforestry internship I undertook a variety of different roles and had the potential to participate in a number more, those of which I did participate in are listed below.

Creation and editing of monitoring guides.
Research into the health properties of Amazonian plants.
Creation and editing of communication products such as posters, handouts and product packaging.
Organisation of intern work.
Creation of a guide for future interns.
Creation and updating of vivero (plant nursery) inventory.
Reforestation project: rotating agroforestry fund.

The work I did with the Fundacion that I felt was most worthwhile was with the rotating agroforestry fund. It was the most rewarding in terms of the physical labour exuded and most insightful into how a non-profit project works to make a self-sustaining cycle incorporating both environmental conservation and livelihood protection. Work within this project involved number of different processes, each making up a cycle as shown below. One of the highlights of the internship was spending a few days with the Fundacion Local Community Coordinator (Leonardis) in the community of Mushullacta whilst monitoring the reforestation programme that had been implemented the previous year. Whilst staying with Leonardis’ brother and family, we would wake up to a breakfast cooked by the mother of the family (also the chief of the community), eat as a family, and then all set of to work, the children to school and the parents to their respective jobs. We spent our days hiking to nearby chakras to monitor the growth of plants alongside collecting information about the land owner and their chakras. After an intense day of work, we would then come home and await dinner whilst playing with the children of the family. The information collected during these field activities is then collated in annual reports that feedback to funders (in this case such as WWF) about the projects progress and act as proof of its ability to allow for reforestation alongside livelihood benefits.

With the help of a locally based social enterprise that focus on cross cultural exchange, the Fundacion interns are able to participate in traditional ceremonies that allow for further cultural immersion. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, these include forest feasts and traditional guayusa ceremonies, where communities wake up as early as 3am to drink guayusa tea, share ideas and interpret dreams. Weekends for interns are free and work days can be negotiated

(within reason) and the staff will willingly give recommendations on activities and guidance on how to get to points of interest. This gave me the opportunity to visit Yasuni National park, arguably the most biodiverse place on the planet. Here, we would experience the most beautiful sunsets and a plethora of flora and fauna. Our weekends were also spent canyoning in Banos, visiting botanical gardens in Puyo, swimming in Laguna Azul (Blue Lagoon) and hiking around lake Quilatoa and up Cotopaxi. The city of Tena where the internship is based also holds many opportunities for community immersion with ultimate frisbee being played weekly and daily free zumba classes taking place in Parque lineal.

This internship experience simultaneously lived up to my expectations and was very different to my expectations. The organisation goes above and beyond to provide intern support, with both pre and post departure orientations. The internship coordinators encourage being open about challenges being faced throughout your internship, such as culture shock and provide coping strategies for this. Runa in Kichwa language means fully alive. I believe that this internship gives a wider world view for interns and provided me with varying facets of knowledge such as emotional strength, academic growth and profession awareness, allowing me to feel ‘fully alive’ by being aware of my vision for my own future.”

Agroforestry Internship in Ecuador

Thanks for this experience!

“It was an incredible experience and truly different than just study abroad. It was a true dive into cultural immersion and I hope that everyone has the chance to have this experience. I really found another extraordinary part of myself that I had been pushing away for years. I found the part of me that was outgoing and confident. I learned to go with the flow and to relax and enjoy this life.

I am especially grateful for the children of the host families I stayed at. They taught so much about being carefree and just happy for what you have. They made me thankful for the members of my family that care for me so deeply. There is always something healing about the happiness of these children, even when they don’t have that much.”

Ecuador: Climate Change Mitigation, Agroforestry, and Sustainable Development

Indigenous Midwifery Report

“The experience definitely made me realize how much I love more traditional, organic forms of practicing medicine, and I don’t think I fit into more stressful, systematic medical environments. As long as interns go into the internship with an open mind and feel ready to really immerse themselves in a culture that is very different from theirs, then I think they would gain incredible life experiences from the program. It was well organized, Mika and Andy are very trustworthy and definitely know what they are doing, and they are happy to offer support however necessary at any point during the internship.

I feel extremely benefited by my enhanced perspective of medical practices worldwide, along with the interplay of traditional forms of medicine and Biomedicine. Then, in addition to that I feel like my immersion in another culture for a substantial amount of time is invaluable in how it guides my perspectives and interactions with the people around me both in and outside of my work life. I’m just super grateful to the organization for helping me to fulfill my longstanding dream of immersion in an another culture, learning indigenous medicine! Thank you for connecting me with the Kichwa people and giving me the chance to learn from people full of knowledge to share!”

Traditional Indigenous Midwifery and Amazonian Plant Medicine in Ecuador